Linda is so wrapped up and making sure that he is happy that she thinks he can do no wrong. Willy’s affair is not seen as a wrongdoing, but it is seen as an get away for him. It is a portrayed as a dream or hallucination to the audience. In that way it gives off a feeling of sympathy for him, because of his illness.
Willy's logical inconsistencies brings confusion towards the audience itself toward the start of the play; in any case, they soon turn into a characteristic of himself. Willy's conflicting conduct is the after effect of his powerlessness to acknowledge reality and his propensity to control or re-make the past trying to get away from the present. For instance, Willy can't leave himself to the way that Biff never again regards him on account of Willy's affair with another woman. As opposed to concede that their relationship is irreparable, Willy retreats to a past time when Biff appreciated and regarded him. As the play goes on, Willy disassociates himself more from the present as his issues turn out to be excessively too much, making them impossible to manage.
As Willy develops his ideal view on the world, he begins to expect his sons to live up to his standards. He critiques his sons for not having jobs or a family or a house, but he is truly deflecting his emotions on them while continuing to live in his make believe world. Arthur Miller furthers his argument that ignorance is not bliss by showing how Willy’s ignorance doesn't make the other characters happy. Biff and Happy agree to follow their mother’s toleration towards Willy, but it comes with a cost. When Biff discovered that Willy cheated on Linda he desperately wanted to tell her, but this would uncover his father’s inner world.
Willy repeatedly experiences delusions of talking to his late rich brother, Ben, often talking to him as if he were alive. His father abandoned him early on, then Ben, his great brother who truly found the American Dream in Willy’s eyes. Later on in his life, Willy’s own son’s abandoned him. In a study posted by Alzheimer’s Research UK, depression has recently been linked to a higher dementia risk in those over 55. Willy being 63 at the time of the play, along with having heavy implications, almost outright said multiple times in the play, having depression, it is not a surprise he likely has a form of dementia as severe as it
Willy always found his dreams in someone else which is why his happiness never came. At first it was his father then it was his brother Ben, and then it was famous sales man Dave Singleman. He looked for others inside of himself which led to him not being satisfied. Dreams can not be rented or borrowed. Willy never realized this and in turn it caused his mental health to deteriorate even more than it already had.
Though at first Linda appears to be a submissive housewife, by the end of the play her true purpose as a protector for Willy both against himself as well as the judgement from their sons Biff and Hap is prominent. As stated by Willy directly, Linda is his foundation. She is the glue that holds their family together, she stands by Willy and is always optimistic despite his struggles with working as a salesman in the remnants of The Great Depression. Linda always does her best to both motivate Willy, as well as push him to maintain his relationship with Biff and Hap.
Linda feels obligated to be a crutch for Willy, leaving little care for herself. Perhaps Linda is partially to blame for Willy’s neurosis because of her enabling of Willy’s various attempts at killing himself: “You didn’t smash the car, did you?... Oh. Maybe it was the steering again” (2-3). Linda knows that Willy is self destructive,
Because Willy no longer has a job, he is unable to support his family the way that he is supposed to, which negatively affects his relationship with his wife Linda, and their two
In Death of a Salesman, Linda is Willy’s loyal and loving wife, who always unconditionally supports Willy’s unrealistic American Dream and defends Willy against the criticisms of their sons. She criticizes that Biff should not wander from place to place any more because she and Willy are getting older and will leave this world one day. Biff replies to Linda’s statements, but he doesn’t mention Willy at all. Biff’s behavior makes Linda upset and angry; Linda tells Biff that he either respects his father or leaves home. When Linda tells Biff that Willy often mumbles to himself, Biff is ashamed of Willy’s irrational behavior.
This helped lead Willy to his own downfall because he was always lacking and felt unwanted and
On top of his failures in the workplace, his own family adds to this stress. Linda exists as an extremely passive wife. Even though she discovers that Willy is planning his own suicide, she does nothing to stop it. Not only that, but she does not even talk to him about the serious issue for fear of hurting his pride. One must wonder if she had shown support and care for him, would he still have felt so alone and taken his own life?
He maybe a sixty year old man, but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect just because hes older and wiser. From time to time, Willy would forget things due to his old age except these were a little extreme; because when he wakes up from his slumber and starts talking to Linda “ No, it’s me, it’s me- I’m going sixty miles an hour-I don’t remember the last five minutes. I’m-I can’t keep my mind on it” (13). He sounds lost, “it’s me” is mentioned more than once and the fact hes driving a car and doesn’t remember is a hazard.
Willy reveres his brother Ben and learns an unscrupulous version of success. Willy believes obtaining results, no matter the method, defines success which provides Biff with a faulty sense of reality. Willy lacks the
It is Willy’s blind faith in his ill-advised version of the American Dream that leads to his rapid decline, as he becomes unable to accept the disparity between his dreams and his own
Willy does not want to face the fact that he is not a good salesman, and that he was unfaithful to his wife, so he uses his memories to block out reality. Willy has trouble distinguishing his
